Analysis of A Medley: Tears, Idle Tears (The Princess)
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a summering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
Scheme | XABXCXXXXC XXBAC XXXXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1101111111 1101110101 1001010101 0101010101 0101011111 11011100101 1110111010 110111101 1111110101 1111011111 1101101101 01001110101 1101110101 01101011 1111011111 1101010101 0111110101 1111110111 1111011101 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 855 |
Words | 168 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
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"A Medley: Tears, Idle Tears (The Princess)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54706/a-medley%3A-tears%2C-idle-tears-%28the-princess%29>.
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